Israeli protesters clashed with police at the Ben Gurion Airport, demanding the government reverse the recent judicial reform legislation.
Law enforcement personnel said they arrested 37 protesters for allegedly disturbing the peace after overrunning barricades, blocking roads, and entering Terminal 3. Officers were also found to have used force to prevent protesters from blocking the street while dragging people out of the arrivals hall as they chanted "Democracy" and "This government is criminal."
Israeli Protesters Clash With Police at Ben Gurion Airport
After a few hours of demonstrations, police declared that the protest in the area was illegal and geared up to disperse the crowd. Law enforcement officials added that protesters dragged plants into the streets to create barricades on top of crowding into the road.
Reports noted an estimated 15,000 protesters at the facility who began demonstrations in the late afternoon and continued into the night. The disturbance resulted in massive traffic jams at the airport entrance and roads leading toward the site, as per the Times of Israel.
Furthermore, the situation caused some flights to be delayed by several hours, and there were reports that some passengers missed their flights. Roughly 93,000 travelers were also scheduled to arrive and depart on some 550 flights during the day.
There were hundreds of protesters later gathered outside of the Ramply police station, where demonstrators who were arrested at the airport were taken to, demanding their friends' release. In a statement issued after midnight, police said the detained people were released.
Law enforcement authorities said they would uphold protesters' right to demonstrate but also vowed to protect and maintain public order and keep access roads open for emergency vehicles.
Despite the inconveniences caused by the protests, some passengers supported the demonstrators at the airport. According to Haaretz, the Nasser couple, who arrived from Miami at 1:00 p.m. for a midnight flight, sacrificed a day in Tel Aviv.
Opposing Judicial Reform
Felicia said she believed protesters were doing the right thing by fighting for democracy. Her husband, Marius, also shared a lighthearted perspective, considering the situation as a test of their relationship. He said that spending many hours in a boring place was the trick.
Another person from Tamra, Bashira-Bashir, arrived at the airport five hours before his scheduled flight to Cairo. He also supported the protest, saying that it was all good if it was done against Bibi, a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu made the situation a little better in March after ordering the pause of the legislation and began compromise talks with the opposition. However, those negotiations later proved fruitless as he has turned to pursue what he believes is a scaled-back version of the judicial reform.
The Israeli prime minister maintained that the reforms are meant to restore the balance between the various branches of government and redress what he and his coalition allies believe is judicial overreach, said Reuters.
